THE WORLD IN PANTAGRUEL'S MOUTH
687
flows out of obscene words and stories. All this is far more character–
istic of the later Middle Ages than of Antiquity-at least in Anti–
quity "laughing truth-telling" had never known such a wide swing
of the pendulum to either side; for that, the late medieval mixture of
styles was necessary. Yet Rabelais' style is not merely the Middle Ages
monstrously exaggerated. When, like a late medieval preacher, he
mingles a formless plethora of erudition with coarse vulgarity, the
erudition no longer has the function of supporting some doctrine of
dogma or ethics by authority- instead, it furthers the grotesque game
which either makes the momentary subject matter appear ridiculous
and meaningless, or at least puts in question the degree of seriousness
with which it is asserted. His popular appeal too is different from that
of the Middle Ages. Undoubtedly Rabelais appeals to the people
because an uneducated public-so far as it understands his language
--can always be vastly amused by his stories. But those to whom his
work is really addressed are members of an intellectual elite, not the
people. The preachers addressed the people; their lively sermons
were intended for direct delivery. Rabelais' work was meant to be
printed, in other words to be read, and that, in the sixteenth century,
still meant that it was addressed to a very small minority; and even
in the small minority, it is not the same stratum as that for which the
chapbooks were intended.
Rabelais himself expressed his opinion on the level of style of his
work, and in doing so he cited not a medieval but an antique example,
namely Socrates. The text is one of the finest and ripest in his work,
the Prologue to "Gargantua," that
is,
to the First Book, which, how–
ever, as we mentioned before, was not written and published until
after the second.
Beuveurs tres illustres, et vous, Verolez tres precieux
- car
a
vous, non a aultres, sont dediez mes escriptz
- thus begins
the celebrated text, which, in its polyphonic richness, in its announce–
ment of the various themes of the work, can be compared to a musical
overture. Few if any authors ever before addressed their readers
in this fashion, and the Prologue becomes even more of a prodigy
t:hrough the sudden appearance of a subject, which, after such a begin–
ning is the last thing one expects:
Alcibiades ou dialoge de Platon
intitute Le Bancquet, louant son precepteur Socrates, sans controverse
prince des philosophes, entre aultres parolles le dict estre semblable
